Vampiro Turned Prince Puma into a Pawn

Prince Puma returned to The Temple for Lucha Underground’s third invitational with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. He had come up short at the conclusion of the second iteration in his highly anticipated matchup against Rey Mysterio, and he was doubting himself.

The loss hurt. He had bought into the hype that the match was basically made for him to win. Mysterio, they were saying, was far past his prime, no longer able to keep up with the man who had held Lucha Underground’s Heavyweight and Trios Titles, Prince Puma. As far as Puma was concerned, The Temple was his house, and Rey was just a very established visitor who was going to learn his place.

But he lost. Clean. He could offer no excuses – Rey was simply the better man that night. He turned back the clock with a vintage performance, and Puma may have simply found himself in awe as he watched his hero do his thing one more time. We’ve seen it before, where the young lion underestimates what the old lion can still do. Had Puma simply underestimated Rey? Was he starstruck in the match? Or… was he just not that good yet?

That was the haunting question. After all he had accomplished in The Temple, all the people he had defeated, the championships he held… was he still not at the level of an aging veteran?

As he considered these questions, Vampiro appeared. And while Puma wondered how good he truly was, and tried to figure out what went wrong with Mysterio, Vampiro offered up a slightly odd path of redemption: take out Mil Muertes.

Puma, Vampiro reasoned, just hadn’t been the same man since he lost the Lucha Underground Heavyweight Championship in the main event of the first Ultima Lucha. He had spent nearly the entirety of the second invitational wasting away in six man tags, before eventually making that ill-fated challenge to Mysterio. He didn’t seem as focused, nor as hungry, as he was before. And frankly, it seemed odd to Vampiro that Puma lost that fire.

To that end, he reasoned, Puma’s road to redemption lied not with Mysterio, but with Muertes. Puma wasn’t exactly receptive to the idea, noting that he didn’t need Vampiro’s advice, before pointing out that Vampiro’s attention was better served on other people, like Pentagon DARK.

Vampiro held tight to his thought, however, and Puma seemed to actually consider it. In fact, Puma not only considered it, he followed through, challenging Muertes in search of redemption. And he found it.

That win let Puma see that he was improving. Things that hadn’t been enough before, now were. Mistakes made in the past were not repeated. It wasn’t quite as good as a win over Rey Mysterio, but it was a very nice consolation prize. Puma was, as the kids say, feeling himself.

In fact, he carried that confidence when he accepted a challenge for a Grave Consequences casket match against Muertes, who was now the one seeking to prove himself. Unfortunately, that confidence was going to be his downfall. Muertes, fuelled by Catrina’s promise to not bring him back again should he lose, won the encounter, burying the Prince in the same casket that was used to vanquish his mentor, Konnan.

We can wonder why Puma accepted the match with Muertes all day long. In truth, there wasn’t much sense to it. Muertes is always a dangerous out, and Puma had beaten him clean, proving himself the better man. Sure, there’s always talk of a “rubber match,” but Puma was the one with the advantage. Instead of using the momentum from that win to secure a title shot, he opted to instead move laterally, and it didn’t pay off.

We can also wonder why Puma listened to Vampiro’s advice. In all likelihood, Puma could have approached Mysterio for a rematch, and he would have been granted one. If redemption was what he wanted, why not try to right the most recent wrong in his career? Why allow himself to be sidetracked against such a dangerous opponent, with no titles on the line, when there are other, more sensical paths to getting back to the top?

What concerns this columnist the most – if this columnist is being honest – is why Vampiro even took it upon himself to offer the advice in the first place.

Did Vampiro send Puma on a final march on purpose? Did he know that Puma ultimately couldn’t beat Mil Muertes? And again, if he did, why would he start Puma up on this idea to begin with?

“Not only did he take your mentor from you…” The reference to Konnan made it all fall into place. Had Vampiro set Prince Puma up as one final shot in the years-long feud between Vampiro and Konnan?!

We know that Vampiro is many things, but “someone to be trusted” probably isn’t one of them. We also know that sometimes his guidance goes awry, as it did with Pentagon during the second invitational. But, above all else, we know that Vampiro is driven by an insatiatble urge to make those who stand against him suffer. Konnan’s been gone for a while, and it’s clear he’s not returning to The Temple after what happened to him.

Vampiro was sidetracked last year trying to help Pentagon achieve immortality, but it all eventually fell apart. No longer wanting to think about his broken pupil, Vampiro may have found the right time to get in one final parting shot. And it may have cost The Temple one of its most valiant defenders, and overall most popular performers.

Is this the end for Prince Puma? It’s cliché, but only time will tell. If there’s anyone that can bounce back from – or off of – anything, it’s got to be Prince Puma. But there’s a very good chance that he was simply a pawn – though, still, the ultimate victim – in a savage play by a man holding years of hatred in his heart.

And if I’m Pentagon DARK, I really should have paid attention to what just happened to Prince Puma. There’s a good chance that Vampiro really isn’t someone to mess with.

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